You are cordially invited to:

The Fuse Box Benefit Party

Thurs, May 1st @ 6:30pm
Salvage Vanguard Theater/Gallery
2803 Manor Rd

Join us for an inspired evening of contemporary art, discussion, food, drinks and a performance by the acclaimed dance company HIJACK (Minneapolis) and other performances from around the country. We'll also share our vision and plans for building a festival of international significance.

Now in its 4th year, Fuse Box is the only event of its kind in Texas. The only comparable festival in the US is the wildly successful (and fast growing) Time-Based Art Festival in Portland, OR.

Fuse Box was voted one of the Top Ten Arts Events of 2007 by the Austin-American Statesman, and one of our featured installations was voted The #1 Art Installation of 2007 by the Austin Chronicle.

This year we'll host artists from Canada, Mexico City, Salt Lake City, Portland, New Mexico, London, Paris, NYC, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Houston and Chicago as well as some of the brightest emerging artists from right here in central Texas. Participating venues include: Arthouse, Art Palace, Big Medium Gallery, The Blanton, The Blue Theater, Cafe Mundi, Gallery Lombardi, MASS Gallery, Mexican American Cultural Center, Okay Mountain, Women and
Their Work, and the historic Victory Grill.

But the festival is more than just innovative programming. At its heart, the festival is about conversation: Artists and audiences talking shop, trying on new perspectives together, creating a platform for big questions and fierce thinking and risk and innovation.

We want you to be part of this conversation.

So please join us on Thursday, May 1st @ 6:30pm! Give yourself time to explore the installation before the HIJACK performance begins at 7:00pm. Following the performance we'll host a reception to share news about Fuse Box and invite you to support what we're building in Austin. We will then be traveling to the LONG CENTER to see the opening night performance of Reggie Watts @ 9:30pm. You are welcome to join us for part or all of the evening's festivities.

To ensure yourself a seat, RSVP to: ron@refractionarts.org

Sincerely,
Ron Berry
Artistic Director
Refraction Arts/Fuse Box Festival

TOP 10 REASONS FOR SUPPORTING FUSE BOX

1. Thrusts Austin into the national/international spotlight, as artists from around the globe create and premiere new performances and works of art.
2. Gives local audiences the opportunity to see cutting-edge new works.
3. Establishes Austin as a cultural leader and artistic hub for contemporary new work.
4. Gives the public access to a series of free and low-cost workshops, classes, and discussions hosted by a diverse group of professionals from around the country.
5. Gives Austin artists a series of rigorous training courses taught by master instructors, helping to raise the artistic bar for future generations of Austin art makers.
6. Gives local artists an opportunity to work with other artists living around the globe, creating new collaborations and conversations while advancing their craft.
7. Creates new avenues for Austin artist's work to be seen outside of Austin by visiting producers, writers and presenters from around the country.
8. Builds new audiences for local artists and local art organizations.
9. Generates visitor revenue for Austin businesses.
10. Completely unique in its scale, scope and mission there is nothing else like this event in the entire State and only one other event in the entire country that compares.

TESTIMONIALS:

Fuse Box fills a crucial role in presenting work that defies categorization, which at this moment applies to some of the most relevant contemporary performance and installation work being created. As an artist I felt encouraged to take risks and free to experiment in the truest sense of the word. At every turn, our creativity was supported in an environment that thrives on the new and the unprecedented. In addition to developing and presenting our work, the festival presented an amazing range of events in which boundary-crossing artists could be inspired and pushed by each other - this is an important discourse which is hard to find elsewhere. Many institutions and festivals talk about multimedia and interdisciplinarity, but to my knowledge no other festival is as committed to or as excited about the new forms and new potential that comes out of interfacing different and often unlikely _expressions of Art.
--Joe Diebes, Composer (New York City)

I loved performing at Fuse Box! I was informed and inspired by the personal interactions with other artists at both the artistic and professional level. I just wish we could have stayed longer.
--Linda Austin, Dancer/Choreographer (Portland)

Fuse Box is the kind of Festival we need to see more of in the USA: Dedicated to new work, work that redefines the boundaries of theatre and performance, and expands the possibilities for artists and audiences alike. Fuse Box was one of the best working experiences I've had in the past 10 years.
--Phil Soltanoff, Director (New York City)

There was a fine continuity about it all - as if just by seeing everything they'd programmed, you'd be rethinking what live performance is and can be. In my experience, curating is at least in part an act of faith, informed by a sharp eye and a handful of good questions. By bringing music, dance, theater, performance art, sound art and poetry into the same big tent, Fuse Box was an elemental experience. It was a pleasure and a privilege to perform there, and I felt so well taken care of by them it was almost like I'd never left home.
--Aaron Landsman, writer/performer (Brooklyn, NY)

Inventive, big hearted and visionary -- it is one of the most exciting art festivals on the map. At every corner one trusts in the caliber of work presented and the particular investigations of artists involved. For artist, amateur or audience member one feels enlivened by the scope of possibility and dialogue offered by this gem of a festival.
--Lauren Tietz, dancer (Austin, TX)